The Origins of the Creed of the Christian Community

The Origins of the Creed of the Christian Community: Its History and Significance Today

Unlike other Christian creeds, the creed of The Christian Community is not a statement of belief, but rather a series of assertions that act as a path toward a deeper understanding of Christianity.

Peter Selg offers an insightful and informative overview of how—in the time leading up to the founding of The Christian Community nearly a century ago—Rudolf Steiner formulated both the creed itself and its founding principles.

Selg also examines the history of Christian creeds—including the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed—and compares them to each other. Finally, he also explores the ongoing significance of the creed for The Christian Community today.

C O N T E N T S:

Anthroposophy and religion
Before the founding of The Christian Community
First reading of the Creed of The Christian Community
Finding the words for the new Creed
The development of the text of the Creed
Christian Community works on the Creed
The Creed as preparation for baptism
First formulation of the Creed
The Creed as a defence against gnosis
The Nicene Creed
The priest and the Creed
Comparison of versions of the Creed
Steiner’s reticence in explaining the Creed
Our responsibility today
The Creed for the future

Notes
Bibliography

Matthew Barton is a translator, editor, teacher, and poet, and taught kindergarten for many years at the Bristol Waldorf School. His first collection of poems was Learning To Row (1999). He has won numerous prizes for his work, including an Arts Council Writer’s Award and a Hawthornden Fellowship.

Peter Selg was born in 1963 in Stuttgart and studied medicine in Witten-Herdecke, Zurich, and Berlin. Until 2000, he worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke hospital in Germany. Dr. Selg is now director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy (Arlesheim, Switzerland) and professor of medicine at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany). He lectures extensively and is the author of numerous books, many of which have been published in English.